> Correct. I think they want to avoid automated systems that tweak a
> webpage, see how placement is affected, tweak it again, etc.
That would take forever (you'd have to wait for a second visit from
their crawler).
I think they want to avoid added-value websites that don't mention the
Google brand -- it would be like redistributing Python but claiming
you wrote it yourself.
> Also, if you notice
> their links, they redirect through Google itself:
>>http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.python.org/&e=921>> (I don't think they used to do this, but I'm not certain.)
Me too.
> I'm sure they use click frequency as a component of their relevance
> algorithm. A program running through those links would adversely
> affect their scoring algorithm.
Indeed. And I don't want to affect their scoring algorithm -- it's
their most valuable feature!
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)